On July 1, Metropolitan State College officially became Metropolitan State University of Denver, ending a process that had dragged on for four years, through research, debate and, finally, the approval of the Colorado Legislature. But the school in the heart of the city really made its name last month, when…
A little over a year after it left LoDo — and after a very long week in which its liquor license got caught in a state snafu — the Squeaky Bean finally opened in its new, much larger home last week…
Just in time to help you get out and celebrate the 4th in this beautiful state, our list of the “50 reasons Colorado is the best state in America” is getting a reprise around the country. And so are comments from Colorado haters and lovers alike…
For years, people living around the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant wondered if the secret operations at that facility could somehow be endangering the health of people and animals living nearby. And the FBI’s spectacular dawn raid of Rocky Flats in June 1989, certainly didn’t do much for property values…
This has been one hot summer — and it’s bound to get even hotter. Tempers are flaring over the handling of the wildfires, and rumors are heating up over their possible cause: terrorists are setting the fires. And President Barack Obama’s visit to the Waldo Canyon fire today is fanning…
Burgers! Burgers! Burgers! As summer heats up, so does America’s obsession with burgers. And Denver not only has a number of stand-alone spots that serve up decent burgers, but several Denver-based chains devoted to burgers, as well as many national chains — including Steak ‘n Shake, which just entered the…
A bow-tied Bill Nye the Science Guy joined other smarty-pants experts and climate scientists on the stage at the Boulder Theater this week for a lecture on “Climate Change on Earth and Other Planets.” And if the audience needed more than the smarty-pants on stage to convince them of changes…
A week ago, the state’s tourism office announced that 2011 had been a record-breaking year. And 2012 will break all kinds of records, too — but not the ones boosters like to shatter. Most disappointing ski season. Rafting industry drying up. And the rest of the summer tourism season going…
Red Robin’s new spinoff concept, Red Robin’s Burger Works, is a smaller, less-dramatic-and-more-metallic version of the original, meant for smaller urban spaces. It has less hustle and bustle than the original stores, and also much less less square footage. But the Greenwood Village-based company did put a handful of its…
“Commercial media looks at things in terms of heroes and villains,” Sapphire said before she came to town this week to tout to tout her new novel, The Kid (a semi-sequel to Precious — the Hollywood adaptation of her ’96 novel, Push). “And we all know that the psychological reality…
Voters “like having someone with a proven record,” Representative Doug Lamborn said after winning yesterday’s primary. And what a record! Hell would have to freeze over in El Paso County — which doesn’t look likely, given the Waldo Canyon fire raging there — before voters would skip sending this serial…
Yours Truly, Cupcake is now open on Upper Larimer, with a novel business plan: The bakers inject booze into every confection, creating combos like a Coors Light cake and a Whiskey Sour lemon cake with whiskey icing…
During a day at Water World, Bree Davies discovered that politics, like beauty, really can be skin deep as she looked at a raft of bad tattoos. “I did have time to ponder the meaning of inked life while waiting 45 minutes for a turn to ride a backwash-water-filled tube…
Plutonium lasts forever, and so do the legal actions emanating from Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, which operated sixteen miles upwind from Denver for close to forty years. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to reinstate the $926 million judgment that 12,000 property owners near the plant thought they’d won…
Along with her last review, of Fruition, last week outgoing Cafe critic Laura Shunk served up her list of “Denver spots I’ll miss most.” Colt & Gray and other bars in LoHi figured prominently…
Is Denver’s skate scene “boring as fucking shit”? That’s what one Californian suggested after noticing our photo of the very clean Denver skatepark, when “out here in California skate park walls are all covered with graffiti tagging from anything the rollers want to spray on there.” But one reader rolled…
The Squeaky Bean opens this week — just a year after it abruptly left its tiny, original home in LoHi — in a big space at 1500 Wynkoop Street. That’s the last warehouse to be renovated in LoDo, and it’s a stunning job. Judging from Lori Midson’s first look at…
In January 2009, Alex Landau landed in the hospital after Denver cops pulled over the black teen for making an illegal left turn. He’s still waiting for the Denver Police Department to determine the fate of the officers involved — but another verdict came in this weekend, when Joel Warner’s…
In honor of Go Skateboarding Day, Britt Chester took his board out on the town last Friday for his weekly installment of Guess where? Which inspired one reader to suggest why the Denver skatepark looked so clean…
Jenna Johansen got the boot from Bravo’s Around the World in 80 Plates this week, after making it through seven countries — and countless challenges. “When I came on to this competition, I thought this would be an adventure, and I thought that there would be a lot more cooking,”…
“If you’re from Denver (or you’ve lived here for more than eight consecutive months) you know how small it can feel,” says Bree Davies. “It’s like three degrees of separation between you, your favorite barista at Pablo’s and your best friend from eighth-grade summer camp. Because that favorite barista is…
This week’s Westword includes Laura Shunk’s last review, of Fruition; earlier today, she posted her list of “Denver spots I’ll miss most..” Since we announced a month ago that Laura was moving to New York, Westword has received a smorgasbord of applications for her food-writing job. And although Eater recently…
